The present invention relates to a travel drive for heavy goods vehicles, in particular bulk material dumping trucks of the so-called large dump truck type, with several wheel pairs forming a driven wheel axle, which wheel pairs are each supported by a separate rocker arm, which extends between the wheels of the respective wheel pairs and carries on opposite sides two wheel hubs on which the wheels can be attached, whereby there is provided for each wheel of the wheel pair an independent wheel drive consisting of an electric motor and a reduction stage, which transfers the drive motion of the electric motor to the respective wheel hub.
The so-called large dump trucks are chiefly used in mining operations for the transport of mined minerals and ores. These bulk material dumping trucks are produced in a size of several hundred tonnes in tare weight and payload, so that special travel drives are necessary to handle the corresponding huge forces and drive conditions.
A large dump truck with an independent wheel drive of the type mentioned at the outset is known for example from WO 92/04196. The rear axle of this large dump truck is formed by four wheels, which are combining in pairs and are mounted on two rocker arms supported in a mobile manner on the vehicle frame. The rocker arms extending between the wheel pairs carry on the right and left a pair of wheel hubs, on which the wheels are mounted. A separate electric motor is assigned to each of the wheels so that the wheels can be driven separately also at different speeds, particularly in order to prevent grinding of the wheels when travelling round tight corners.
Proceeding from the prior art, the problem underlying the present invention is to provide an improved travel drive for heavy duty vehicles of the type mentioned at the outset, which avoids drawbacks of the prior art and develops the latter in an advantageous way. A structurally improved design of the travel drive is preferably to be achieved.